REVIEW: HYDRATION MIX- Nuun vs. Skratch This is a review of two popular sports drinks you mix yourself in a 16oz bottle of water. About the companies: Nuun pronounced Noon claims to be the first company to separate electrolyte replacement from carbohydrates. Nuun makes the claim that before Nuun if you wanted electrolytes, the result was a bottle full of sugar. Depending on the product, Nuun sweetens their product with acesulfame potassium, Stevia or dextrose. Skratch Labs boasts that this is an all-natural sports drink. Flavored with only real fruit and containing no artificial colors or preservatives. Our drink mix won’t upset your stomach, leave a bad taste in your mouth, or challenge your IQ with tongue twisting chem-lab ingredients. They have an interesting story in that the founder of Skratch Labs was a coach for a professional cycling team and started making his own training food and sports drinks for his cycling team from scratch (Skratch). Nuun comes in 12 flavors: Orange, Lemon Lime, Strawberry Lemonade, Fruit Punch, Kona Cola, Lemon Tea, Tri Berry, Grape, Tropical, Citrus Fruit, Watermelon, and Lemonade. For those of us wanting a shot of caffeine, Kona Cola and Lemon Tea have 40mg of caffeine in the 16oz serving which is equal to about two thirds of a cup of coffee. Skratch comes in 7 flavors: Matcha Green Tea + Lemons, Lemons + Limes, Raspberries, Oranges, Pineapples, Apples + Cinnamon (you can drink hot), For those of us wanting a shot of caffeine, Matcha Green Tea + Lemons has your caffeine but Im not sure how much. The American College of Sports Medicine recommends that people that are active for more than one hour get 500-700mg of sodium for every liter of water they consume So what is it that you want in your hydration drink, Sugar? Skratch has a whopping 20g of sugar but Nuun has 0g. Do you want sodium? Skratch has 290mg of sodium and Nuun 359mg of sodium. Do you want Carbohydrates? Skratch has a whopping 21g of carbohydrates and Nuun only has 3g of carbohydrates. Do you want potassium? Skratch has 50mg of potassium and Nuun has 97mg of potassium. Convenience: So which one is easier to use or pack around with you? Both products are easy to use but I actually find Nuun easier. Nuun comes in a plastic container with 12 Alca Seltzer looking tablets in each container. You simply pop the lid off, pull out a Nuun tablet, break it in half (you can’t fit the entire tablet through the opening of the water bottle), and pop it into the water bottle. Skratch comes in individual plastic packets and you have to tear it open. They have a nice perforated top for easy tearing. You poor the Cool Aid type powder into the water bottle. Dissolvability: Nuun dissolves quickly and stays dissolved. Skratch takes a little time to dissolve and if you do not drink it right away, the mix collects at the bottom. Taste: They both taste pretty good. Although Skratch has a really smooth taste that I think a lot of people will appreciate, I like the very subtle carbonated taste of Nuun a little bit more. My favorite is Nuuns Watermelon. Does it taste like watermelon? Uhhh, sorta kinda, but it has a good taste to me. My favorite Skratch mix is Oranges. Cost: Nuun is $24 per container which breaks down to $2.00 a tablet. Skratch is about a $1.95 per mix I have used both products during long runs, easy runs and hard speed workouts at the track. Neither one of these products upset my stomach. They both taste pretty good. I think Skratch has a smoother taste but I like the taste of Nuun a little bit better. To tell you the truth, I hope both of these products are doing what they claim they do and replace the necessary electrolytes my body has used but, the real reason use the electrolyte sports mix is because I have a real problem drinking enough water when training. What both of these products do for me is make the water taste better and I end up drinking a lot more of it. For that, it is a real benefit and worth using. They are both good products and both taste pretty good. You cant go wrong with either one.
Posted on: Thu, 25 Dec 2014 21:23:08 +0000
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